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Re:Ask HN: What is a good “My First Reader” for source code? by tedmiston on Thursday November 08, 2018 @12:03PM (#18407748)
I'm not sure what My First Reader is but perhaps O'Reilly's cookbook series would fit what you're looking for?

They also have another sub-imprint, whose name is slipping my mind right now, focused on teaching technical topics very visually. The general layout of those books is very illustrated compared to typical technical books.

Re:Ask HN: What is a good “My First Reader” for source code? by cimmanom on Thursday November 08, 2018 @06:55PM (#18411155)
OP is probably referring to the types of books generally supplied to small children who are first learning how to read. They tend to be extremely short (no more than a few dozen words in the whole book); heavily illustrated; and use simple words and sentence structure.

By extension, I gather they’re looking for examples of well-engineered programs small and simple enough for a true beginner to thoroughly grok within a short period. Presumably something in a few hundred lines of code that avoids unnecessary indirection or cleverness.